Pilot Callsigns

Callsigns starting with "P"

Peenys

Friend of mine, private parts got stuck between his zipper after getting out of a bar ...

P-Dub

P-Dub = PW = Pee-wee Herman. Apparently I look like Pee-wee when I get a fresh haircut, and my last name is Hermanson.

P-Dub

Dub is short for W, and since the guy was kind of a dick P-W was short for p*n*s wrinkle.

P.E.

Premature Ejection - Pressed the ejection switch in an aircraft while still on the runway.

Packrat

As a road guard in basic, I got sick and tired of having to continually drop back farther and farther because one guy couldn't keep up with his ruck on his back. So I pulled his release and grabbed his pack off him and stripped out the straps, all while running road guard, mind you, and plopped his pack on top of mine. Finished the run with 2 rucks and still never faltered from doing my job. The Senior Drill made the comment that there goes a real packrat. It stuck.

Paco

I received the Callsign before I arrived at the squadron. My last name is Sobrero (obviously similar to Sombrero), so the squadron assumed I would be the first Mexican in the squadron and one guy commented that my first name was probably Paco or Pedro, Paco stuck.

Paco

During my UPT years, I was apprehended by Alabaman police because they mistakenly identified me as a 5'6" 230 lb Mexican burglar (with ponytail and goatee). When one cop realized I wasn't Mexican, he said (in deep Southern drawl), "He ain't a Mexican...he's an Oriental!"

Pagan

Capt. Jerry "Pagan" Temple

Paintball

Last name tippman (witch is a name of paintball marker)

Painter

The Dutch guy, who designs the Paintjob for the F-16 of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Demo Team.

Pampers

An F-14 backseater who suffered "nozzle failure" during flight.

Pancake

Non-military pilots get nicknames too, even those who fly unpowerd hang gliders. One fine day I was setting up a landing, planned a downwind run, 180, settle in to the sand for a perfect no-step landing. Didn't quite turn out that way. Turned about 5 seconds too late, plastered my hang glider into the side of a trailer, which was also the local hang gliding shop. Ever since then I was known as "pancake", for being the only pilot to splat into the trailer.

PANDA

Polish American NFO, Drinks Alot. Also similar to a Panda in paw size and ability to only mate once a year.

Panic

A pilot in my EA-6B squadron could not make a good carrier landing to save his life. He routinely slammed the bird to the deck, catching the "one wire," hence panicking. "Panic" rhythms with his last name, so...
Incidentally, CDR Willie McCool was a LCDR in our squadron when he was selected as an astronaut candidate. RIP, brother.

Panzer

German. Built like a f***ing tank

Pappi

Our flight doc, being a newbie, also had the last name of 'Ram', which brought about endless monikers such as ASS or Butt or Rod. However, when asked about the grossest medical story he has ever seen, he told a story about how, as a student, his supervising physician threw him in a room to do a PAP smear on a rather large inner city patient without being allowed to take a history. Sure enough he goes in (STS) and voi-la, she menstruates all over him. A Pappi peel, last ditch effort to unload munitions, seemed fitting as he got 'unloaded' on. AM was suggested - All Mensutruation, to go along with his last name. Well, Pappi stood, no EO complaints (that I know of)

Pappy

Oldest Guy in the squadron.

Paps

Poor guys last name was Speer. Great fighter pilot, did look a lot like Opie from the TV show Andy Griffith.

Peanut

Shortest guy in the squadron

Peanuts

Being Dutch/Indonesian mix was the main reason for my call sign

Pecker

It's a play off of my last name. I do, however, have other stories behind it depending on the audience.

Pecker

Tame version? First name ended in wood.
The racier version should be left up to the imagination.

Penguin

I started flying in 1982 and never got my license. Accumulated 120 hrs. in the air.
Will start to fly my CHALLENGER ultralight soon. My call sign will be Ken"PENGUIN" Hrabb
I was the bird that never flew!!

Perp

'Short for 'perpetrator.' Security stopped him while walking to the barracks from the o'club. Perp thought he was evading the enemy, so while hiding in the bushes at the golf course, he sanitized his flight-suit patches and refused to talk.'

PEZ

My initials are P.E.S. n some genius must've stayed up all night to come up with that one.

PFKAP

Original call sign was Pigpen before he PCS'ed to Aviano AB, Italy, around the turn of the century. As the 510th Fighter Squadron commander already had the callsign Pigpen, the new guy's callsign was reduced to the acronym for Pilot Formerly Known As Pigpen (a la Prince's former name -- AFKAP)

Pickle

Came back from a flight one drop tank short...

Pickle

For a new weapons system security check our flight int. called the empty bays "pods" and the bays with missiles "pickles" so as to make a nice little rhyme to remember the check. I was flying my downwind leg solo when the int reminded me to secure weapons. I mixed up the pods with the pickles and needless to say I shot a "pickle" into a farmers field about 5 miles off downwind leg. After 2 weeks being grounded and 4 forties of beer later the name pickle stuck

Pid

Guy's name was Stuart, as in Stu. Was known, on certain appropriate occasions where adult beverages were available, to perform down to certain acceptable standards.

Pigeon

On a couple upgrade flights, I'd been really thirsty, it was dried out, and we were doing a full profile. As a result, I had some trouble swallowing. To cope, I started struggling hard to swallow and it made me look like a pigeon bobbing my head.

Pink

last name was Floyd

Pinky

My ears resembled those of the rat from "Pinky and the brain".

Pipper

Guy always lost dogfights, and ended up in his opponent's pipper.

Piston

Last name was Liston. During his area solo he had to urinate extremely bad. After landing while exiting the jet he let loose and sprayed half the aircraft. Snuck back into the flight room but was ratted out by maintenance a few hours later.

PITA

I was assigned to the 36 FS (Osan AB) and all the FNGs get a naming ceremony. Considering that I was on my fourth tour in the Viper, had trained several of these guys either in UPT or RTU, and already had paid my dues, I basically busted their balls during the whole ceremony (and paid the drinking penalties for it). They finally gave up and named me Pain In The Ass. I think I earned it!

Pitbull

Pitbull... a very loyal to the death canine with a voracious appetite to achieve his or her objective even at the cost of injury, loss of limb or death... a respected and hated killer by many and loved and adored by a few... I got the callsign from my second CO during a FITREP debrief. I thought that it was a cool callsign, until I was explained why he gave me the callsign "Pitbull", and it wasn't because of my tenacious aerial exploits, but more because on the ground I was relentless in getting my own way even at the expense of being somewhat reckless and unorthodox. Lesson learned... one might get his or her way for a day, but repeated antics of being overly-aggressive in the ready room will mark one as a non-team player... Not good if one is bent on making the military a career beyond the rank of Major... That debrief stuck with me for the rest of the time I was in the military, and even today that debrief rings true...
I enjoyed a colorful military career, and yes, I did learn early on when to be THE PITBULL and when to leave him at home.

PITS

Pops In Ten Seconds. self explanatory. His girlfriend told us that he lasted "10 to 20 seconds"

Plan B

When chicks walk in to the bar, they see this guy and know what their "last resort" is.

Plays

Pilots last name is "Wizit."

Plow

a 496 TFS pilot in the late 80's was taxiing in after a night mission. He turned on the wrong taxiway and ended up at a gate that wasn't open. Rather than call on the radio and admit his major faux paux, he elected to try a U-Turn. Well every Viper pilot knows that the jet that can turn tighter than anything in the air... can't on the ground. His U-Turn buried a main gear strut and instead of shut down, he powered it out and back onto the taxiway. Unfortunately, mud almost to the bottom of the wing gave him away.

Plug

Female pilot given this nickname after sucking down intake plug into engine.

Poacher

Col. Funk. Rumor has it he strafed camels in the sandbox. He will neither confirm nor deny the story.

Poet

Like the poet, Longfellow - get it? True origin: Puked on Eggs Twice. I have a slight aversion to raw eggs mixed with Jeremiah Weed. After I yakked the first time, I scraped the yak off the table and into my beer (only to repeat the process). I might have been a tad inebriated at the time...
It's a callsign not likely to strike fear in the hearts of men, so I tend to tell the Longfellow version.

They died in their glory, surrounded by fame,
And Victory's loud trump their death did proclaim;
They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.

--H.W. Longfellow

Point Man

I get volunteered for every mission... even if I don't volunteer myself. Started in AITs and continues today in airsoft...I'm point man for every op.

Pointer

Guns seem to be tighter than laser beams in the dark

Poker

Last name Harder. Flying for the 14th FS, Misawa AB, Japan

Pookie

Short punk kid who wanted a cool callsign. He wanted to be called Swerve from when he was a kid. Everything we called him he hated. So we pulled Pookie out of nowhere. He hated Pookie more than any other callsign. We loved it! We got a HOT CHICK to tell him that she wanted to call him Pookie because he reminded her of an old boyfriend that was just as hot as he was. He loved it. But secretly we all knew that we just pulled it our of our A**!

Poopy

Name with held to protect the guilty. Because they only make piddle packs, #2 is up to you.

Poptop

Otherwise super-stick in the squadron who managed to inadvertently jettison not one but two canopies.

Porkins

Overweight, just like the pilot in Star Wars.

Porno

IP at Laughlin now a C-5 'Fred' Driver at Dover. Ah... self explanatory I believe.

Potluck

Was tested 14 times for drugs always came out clean but he smelt of marijuana every time he got hot or sweated.

POW

It means piece of work, not a compliment. It got cause on my first deployment. i refused to talk to the air traffic controllers on a approach at Port au Prince airport because they were hard to understand. When I was informed that they wanted to report me to the FAA, I said "I have guns and they don't". I did a ton of things like that on that deployment.

Prankster

We're a brand new Shadow UAV unit, when we got out of the school house, we went to a unit that had no idea what we were, so we pulled pranks to ammuse us for the year and a half it took for us to get our equipment and start fielding, we're deployed in OIF 07-09 and we still pull pranks on each other, we love messin with manned aviation.

Press Dent

Corrupted version of "president". Aircraft was accidentally hit by a tug in 2008, and the incident was compared with John McCain's Navy plane being shot with an accidental discharge. Of course, there was a real dent.

Princess

I had a personal 'zarf' (cup holder) that I 'installed' at my last command. One day, this guy puts his coffee mug into my 'zarf'. Bad idea. I politely move it aside and into another one, while putting mine back into the 'zarf'. Some time later, I find his cup in my 'zarf' again. He didn't even drink coffee. I remedy the situation. This happens 3 more times. Finally, in a fit of anger (because he outranked me) I take a roll of duct-tape and wrap the coffee mug to the 'zarf' with the entire roll. Then I proceed to write in black sharpie all over it, "Long's Zarf". A couple hours later and he confronts me face to face as red as a cherry, with steam blowing out his ears. He starts to yell at me and points out all of my faults and says "This isn't your little f***ing dream world Princess!" From that point on everyone called me "Princess". Including the CO.

Princess

Only female in the squadron

Psycho

This guy had a penchant for psych ops. Secretly suffered from very severe obsessive compulsive disorder. Left service to train to become a brain surgeon...

Pucker

One IFE after another, effectively spiraled a T-6 in UPT 13,000 feet before coming 50 feet from having to eject before recovering the aircraft...needless to say he increased the pucker factor...

Puddles

Hostile Call sign given to a viper driver that constantly pissed himself when pulling high Gs. Given to him by maintenance guys, but it stuck with the rest of us pilots.

Pugsley

Last name Adams; my wife called me by my pet name at a squadron picnic and the C/O overheard it.

Puke Ass

He was from Germany, last name was Hurlbut.

Pukey

Got this one at the Kun after a long night on Soju while walking back to the "A Town" bus stop. My fellow nose picken-tire kicken crew dawgs were amazed at how I could projectile hurl while walking down hill while never missing a step. Needless to say, the name stuck.

Punchy

Capt Michael Penrod used to use this call sign, during our F-4 days. He was one of the best sticks then. He later went on to fly F-16's. We still stay in touch -- good friend!

Puppy

Named like that 'cause the babyface I have

Puss 'n' Boots

He showed up for a physical fitness test wearing combat boots because he forgot to grab tennis shoes that day. Despite the clunky boots, he scored better than all of us. But he still earned a silly call sign for it.

Pyro

Forgot to "Fence Out" on LAO at Osan. Pickled off a few flares in the closed pull up and started a fire on the field!